Latest Articles
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Ask Umbra Book Club: Next week the discussion begins about Bill Bryson’s ‘At Home’
Dearest readers, I hope you’re reading this from the warmth of home. If where you are is anywhere like where I am right now, you’re glad to have good insulation, heat, and a roof over your head to keep the freezing rain off. But human beings have not always been so cozy. This and many […]
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How the next farm bill could plant a new crop of farmers
Microloans could encourage young people to become farmers.Photo: Chewonki Semester SchoolUSDA Secretary Tom Vilsack recently called for 100,000 new farmers — a recognition that the U.S. farm population is aging rapidly. To create a revitalized, sustainable, and socially just food system, we need to cultivate a new generation of farmers — and quickly. But starting […]
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Community wind projects still require financing acrobatics
Wind projects shouldn’t require financial acrobatics.Photo: Chris GawThis is part of a series on distributed renewable energy posted to Grist. It originally appeared on Energy Self-Reliant States, a resource of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s New Rules Project. Community wind projects deliver larger economic returns and encounter less local resistance, but a new report released last […]
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How to make sure there will be enough food
We shouldn’t be getting so much of our energy from cornfields.Photo: Ben HusmannToday there are three sources of growing demand for food: population growth; rising affluence and the associated jump in meat, milk, and egg consumption; and the use of grain to produce fuel for cars. Population growth is as old as agriculture itself. But […]
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Senators support polluters over asthmatic children
National health organizations are not scoffing at the link between pollution and asthma.Cross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. As my colleague David Doniger explained, there’s a new pollution promoter on the scene, and his name is Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.). Barrasso has introduced a bill (S. 228) that would allow unlimited carbon dioxide pollution […]
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The Clean Energy Standard nightmare scenario
Nooooooooooo! Not again!It probably won’t come as a surprise to anyone that I’m not particularly sanguine about the politics of the next two years. Here, just for kicks and giggles, is one unpleasant scenario I’ve been contemplating a lot recently. Say the White House seriously tries to push this Clean Energy Standard that Obama proposed […]
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A talk with economist Edward Glaeser: Why America needs to love its cities more
Edward Glaeser.“If ideas are the currency of our age, then building the right homes for those ideas will determine our collective fate.” That’s what Harvard economist and New York Times columnist Edward Glaeser writes in his new book, Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier. And […]
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The ‘greenest Olympics’ actually an environmental catastrophe
If the Sochi Olympics are green, then this logo is compelling to look at.Like a downhill skier that crashes right out of the gate, the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee has a lot of catching up to do if it wants to earn a gold medal for “the greenest Olympics.” World Wildlife Fund Russia and Greenpeace […]
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Is Jon Huntsman the greenest GOP presidential hopeful? [UPDATED]
Jon Huntsman: Will he keep telling it straight on climate change?Photo: World Economic Forum [See updates at the bottom.] Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman is looking like the most climate-cognizant contender for the Republican presidential nomination. In fact, he downright looks like a climate hawk. Huntsman — who is resigning his position as ambassador to […]
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Groundhog Day and climate change: sucky weather for Punxsutawney Phil
We’ll get a tiny shovel for you, Phil.Photo: alemaxaleUpdate: Phil didn’t see his shadow, so supposedly we’re in for a short winter. Thanks, climate change! “Groundhog Day is a lot like a rock concert, but the people are better behaved and there’s a groundhog involved,” the editor of a Punxsutawney newspaper told National Geographic. Just […]
